'Salems's Lot

This book is about a small town named Jerusalems Lot but the people who live there and in the nearby towns call it ‘Salems Lot. A man named Ben Mears, who had already lived in the town as a small boy, comes back to it to write a book and to work through a traumatic event he experienced in town as a kid. Shortly after Ben arrives, two men come to town, rent the Marsten House and open a store in town. Shortly after they arrive things start to go bad, starting with the disappearance of the Glick brothers. Soon the people in the town have to fear for their lives. I usually really enjoy Stephen King books and this is no exception. Although I started reading this book in hopes of a story about witches, I was not disappointed when no witches could be found but instead another supernatural entity. In the beginning of the story Ben talks about how there are some places, where men have done evil things or where evil people have lived, that kind of “store” the evil energy even after the people are gone. Jerusalems Lot seems to be one of those places, because in the last chapter of the book the reader gets letters and journal entries from two men who lived in a nearby town but went to Jerusalems Lot and investigated there in the 1850s or 60s. The Lot already had a history of darkness back then and because of that apparently attracts bad things and people. Therefore after the events of the story most local people stay clear of the Lot and warn outsiders not to go near the town either.

4.5/5 Sterne Was für eine gute, bedrohliche Vampirgeschichte. Ich hab den Showdown gerade weggeatmet. Stephen King hat einfach dieses Talent mich in einer Welt, in der man sich definitiv nicht wohlfühlen sollte, irgendwie trotzdem wohlfühlen zu lassen. Der Gedanke gleich weiterzulesen und zurückzukehren fühlt sich total angenehm an, auch wenn schlimmes passiert und das schafft er bei mir auch bei dieser Geschichte. Mein erster Eindruck bleibt allerdings bis zum Ende bestehen, ich bin der Meinung, dass Needful Things irgendwie aus dieser Geschichte entstanden sein muss, es ist so vieles so ähnlich und vielleicht deswegen für mich noch "vertrauter", denn mit Needful Things hatte ich schon eine wunderbare Lesezeit. Der Spannungsbogen war klasse, das Böse die ganze Zeit greifbar und das Ende erst, wie immer intensiv. Mit dem Menschen sterben lassen hält er sich hier auf jeden Fall auch nicht zurück. Ich konnte diesmal den Hauptprotagonisten nicht ganz so fühlen, Ben war irgendwie recht...blass? Zumindestens zu Beginn, ich konnte trotzdem mitfühlen, besonders am Ende. 🙁 Deshalb hat es mir nichts vermiest, die Atmosphäre und die Gruppendynamik wog mehr.

3,5 ⭐️Ein wirklich sehr guter King, aber zählt für mich nicht zu seinen besten. Aufgrund der vielen Charaktere fiel mir der Einstieg etwas schwer und es hat gedauert bis ich wirklich in der Story drin war. Alles in allem aber eine super Vampirgeschichte, die zu empfehlen ist!

I’ve always loved vampire books, vampire movies, anything related to vampires really. But I think I’ve found a new favorite in Salems Lot. I love this ongoing theme of deep human love and unshakable believe in ones own abilities as the strongest weapon against pure evil in Stephen Kings works. Not just romantic love but platonic and familial love that in the end conquers all. And I’ve always been a fan of Kings writing style and heavy pov switching, so it didn’t bother me here at all. I do think that this probably shouldn’t be the King book someone starts out with for the same reason. I’m used to the amount of characters he uses to tell a story effectively and creatively and it lends a hand to make the town of salems lot seem more real, but I think it could be a little exhausting for someone’s first go. I liked the ending too. I’ve never understood the dislike some people have for the way Stephen King ends his books. Ig you can’t like everything.

📝 Rezension zu Salem's Lot von Stephen King

Salem's Lot ist ein meisterhaft erzählter Horrorroman, der klassische Vampir-Mythologie mit Kings unvergleichlicher Atmosphäre verbindet. Spannend, unheimlich und emotional – ein zeitloser Favorit unter seinen Werken.

I love King's take on vampires!

In „Salem’s Lot“, one of his most well-known novels, Stephen King masterfully explores the effects of evilness on unsuspecting and (more or less) innocent people through the introduction of vampires. He presents a vivid cast of characters to his readers, including the main protagonist, Ben Mears, an author who is haunted by his own past and discovers several obstacles on his quest to find peace; Matt Burke, an aging teacher confronted with the largest challenge of his life; Jimmy Cody, a doctor; Father Callahan, a priest who struggles with being addicted to alcohol; Mark Petrie, a brave young boy trying to find his place in life; and – the single female main character of the entire novel – Susan Norton, a young woman with huge hopes and longings. While their characters are developed during the beginning of the novel, Stephen King temporarily throws irritating events into the game, e.g. a boy disappearing without any traces to be found, or the mysterious background history of Marsten House, a dark mansion located close to Jerusalem’s Lot’s smalltown-life. Slowly, but unavoidably, the true horror of vampire invasions begins to cloud the life in ‘salem’s Lot. One of the most remarkable things about this novel is the way it is driven by its characters rather than its plot during the most parts of the story. It is their decisions which lead to certain events, and those events which lead to certain decisions again. Occasionally, Stephen King lets his heroes (and his heroine) make dumb decisions leading to death and devastation, and some of those decisions even seem to be out of character in comparison to other scenes where the protagonists appear very rational and reasonable. But everyone commits mistakes, no one is perfect. Not even the villains are. Speaking of the villains, Stephen King used a lot of space to create his evil characters, to give them motivations, a background, a purpose. In his novel, vampires are no sexy, charming, dangerous, appealing men. They are dangerous, yes, but they are also repulsive, murderous, merciless and very, very unsexy (even though King also addresses the sexual aspects). A lot of references to Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be discovered during the course of the novel, and King took great care to create his vampire character with Dracula as inspiring example. Maybe I should have read Bram Stoker’s novel before reading this, but it’s a reference shining clearly through the lines, and that’s what makes me anticipate Stoker’s novel even more. King seems to love not only exploring the deepest fears of human nature, but also setting up a smalltown-feeling and then causing havoc over this town. The fight scenes were especially well-written, especially at those times when the Church was involved (either through crucifixes, references to the Bible or the appearances of Father Callahan himself), but he focussed even more on developing his characters and making the story feel real to the reader. For more than half of the story, nothing outstanding happened at all except for two or three stunning scenes. This is already the problem: The way King introduced his main characters (Ben, Susan, Mark, Jimmy, Matt and Father Callahan) was fantastically implemented, but he also created dozens of side plots, which may have been necessary to successfully create the smalltown-feeling, but which kept being irritating and unevenly integrated. In the third chapter of the story, each of the twenty scenes introduced a new character, only for this character's existence to be ignored during the next two hundred pages. I have lost count of the amount of times I had to flip through the pages again to learn who the heck this character was who was just referenced with such a naturalness that you were left thinking you had not been reading close enough. However, „Salem’s Lot“ is fast-paced; well-written; full of depthful annotations; complex, breathing (or rather not breathing, in the subsequent course of the novel) characters and an enthralling conclusion. For me, the most incisive twist occured during the Epilogue, which left the story with an open ending, yet left me satisfied and with a feeling of hope. King allowed his reader to develop the story further, to think of what might have happened to Jerusalem’s Lot afterwards and to create one’s own thoughts and ideas on the story’s message. And that is essentially what I will keep this novel in my memory for.

Brilliant

I love Vampires, I love Stephen King. But this...hmmmmmmmm.....first of all, it was waaaaay too long, King wanted to build up a small town with all their individuals in it and how their daily life looks like in very (very) detailed (and unneccessary) way. It was way too much and most of the time just boring. This should lead to root for these people and feel bad for them when sh*t hits the fan. But it didn't. Because there were just too many random people you mix up and can't remember at the end. What bugged me the most was, that the vampire kind of didn't appear neither as a vampire nor as one of the townspeople in disguise. So there was no detective-who-could-it-be feeling as a reader. And, sorry, but the end was just lame. And on top of it: the edition I own from this book has THE VERY END AS ITS COVER. But hey, this came out in the 70s and it was Kings second novel. So we could file this under "a classic". Reminded me of reading Stokers Dracula some years ago, it is a classic and you have to read it, when you are into vampires, but reading it nowadays will not have the same impact on you as it had on readers once it was released.

With ’Salem’s Lot Stephen King surprised me with a vampire story. Haven’t read too much about it before starting reading, I wasn’t expecting the “vampires” to be actual “vampires”, but rather something other, slightly different, supernatural. Positively surprised, I may add. Vampires like they should be: classic style, menacing and yet oh so sophisticated! The character development of the main characters is not only interesting but very convincing, no action seems out of nowhere and really understandable and comprehensible. From the writer, the magnificent boy, the priest, the teacher and the woman who wants to become a famous artist (and falls in love with the writer, by the way) up to the evil enemies the reader knows where they are coming from and why they are going where they are going. Though, as it should be, you’re honestly surprised and shocked about certain turns of events. Of course most importantly: the entire book is absolutely catching!